Responding to the complaint lodged by the Legend of Maula Jatt’s producer, Ammara Hikmat, FIA has summoned the CEO of Bahoo Corporation for committing online defamation through cyber stalking and incitement.
Sarwar Bhatti, the CEO of Bahoo Corporation and the producer of Maula Jatt 1979, had challenged the making of The Legend of Maula Jatt claiming it to be the violation of his copyrights.
With its order issued on 07.08.2018, the IP tribunal Lahore made it clear that no violation of the copyright of Sarwar Bhatti has been done by Ammara Hikmat and Bilal Lashari, who jointly own the literary rights needed to produce The Legend of Maula Jatt. However, the only conflict in the copyrights was the usage of the title Maula Jatt alone but the addition of other words to the title doesn’t stop Bilal Lashari and Ammara Hikmat to use it.
Previously, films with titles Maula Jatt Te Noori Natt, Maula Jatt in London and Shagird Maula Jatt Da, have been produced and no issue of copyrights were raised. Roshan Jatt, Maula Te Mukkho, Maula Saeen, Kise De Maula are some of the movies written by Nasir Adib which include the characters he has introduced in his film Wehshi Jatt (1975) even before writing Maula Jatt (1979).
Therefore the title ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’ for a new story and screenplay totally saves the producer and director from any potential legal trouble.
According to the producer of The Legend of Maula Jatt, Sarwar Bhatti has been asking for an extortionate amount of 25 crores just for the right to use the title (which as per IPO’s laws fall under literary rights owned by Nasir Adib), producer’s credit in the film, condition to distribute The Legend of Maula Jatt only through his company Bahoo Corporation and share in revenue.
Ammara Hikmat has accused Sarwar Bhatti and his accomplices for inaccurately portraying the facts and misleading view, based on perverse understanding of the law of copyright and trademark and for attempting to mislead the public at large to believe that The Legend of Maula Jatt is being produced in violation of the copyrights owned by the producer of Maula Jatt 1979.
Although ‘the Order’ issued by the IP Tribunal Lahore made it clear that the two copyrights in the respective films are not in conflict of each other in any manner and there is no legal hindrance on Ammara Hikmat and Bilal Lashari to stop The Legend of Maula Jatt from releasing, Mr. Bhatti challenged ‘the Order’ in the High Court where he also failed to get any stay order against the release of the movie.
After he was refused relief from all forums, Mr. Bhatti deliberately started a campaign against The Legend of Maula Jatt, which is receiving rave reviews after the release of its trailer.
Watch the trailer below!
Starring Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi, and Humaima Malick, The Legend of Maula Jatt is slated to be released on Eid ul Fitr in 2019.
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